BlackRock's income-paying bitcoin ETF nears launch at a fee that undercuts rivals

BlackRock is close to launching a bitcoin fund that pays an income.

The world's largest asset manager filed its fourth amendment for the iShares Bitcoin Premium Income ETF on Tuesday, according to its SEC filing. The fund will trade on Nasdaq under the ticker BITA.

The income comes from options. The fund holds bitcoin and shares of IBIT, BlackRock's $47 billion spot bitcoin ETF. Each month it sells call options on those IBIT shares.

A call option gives the buyer the right to purchase the shares at a set price. The fund collects a fee, called a premium, for selling that right. That premium is the income it hands to investors.

As such, selling calls caps how much the fund gains if bitcoin rallies hard. Investors take steady income in exchange for giving up part of a big move. The fund plans to write calls on 25% to 35% of its value at a time.

The fee is the edge, however. BlackRock set the sponsor's fee at 0.65%, which sits below the two largest covered-call bitcoin funds, YBTC and BTCI, which charge 0.95% and 0.99%, Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas said in a post on X.

Balchunas added he expects the fund to launch very soon, noting BlackRock is under pressure to beat Goldman Sachs to market, with Goldman's own bitcoin fund due to go live around July 1.

BlackRock already has the strongest distribution base in the spot bitcoin ETF market. Its iShares Bitcoin Trust, IBIT, has become the flagship product of the sector, regularly drawing the largest inflows and often absorbing capital even when rival funds see redemptions.

IBIT and Fidelity’s FBTC have increasingly turned the U.S. spot bitcoin ETF market into a two-firm race, with smaller issuers often contributing little to daily flows.

The launch would be another step in turning bitcoin into an income product for mainstream investors. The filing shows the fund is already seeded and has started buying bitcoin and IBIT shares - a sign it is close to being ready.